Musician Gary Eller prepares to launch the 19th book in a series of collecting Idaho history

Talented and active musician Gary Eller is preparing to launch his 19th installment in a series of extended, interpretive booklets focusing on Idaho songs and poems from 1923 and earlier. All books have included at least one CD and are both published by the Idaho Songs Project. Each publication has a centralized theme grouping the writings together, with this upcoming project focusing on stock handlers and workers in Idaho.
 Titled “Stock Handler Songs, Poems, and Stories of Early Idaho,” the near 100-page book and included CD set is scheduled to release March 20 with an event celebrating the launch. Like previous booklets, it includes information giving context behind the history and stories of the writings. It covers a variety of peoples, while focusing on the culture of stock handling in the early years of Idaho. The songs and poems gathered are all primarily before radio, with a few exceptions based on content and significance.
 “The unifying theme of this new project is stock handlers of early Idaho,” said Eller. “Some people think, well that’s cattle and horses, but it’s much more than that. It was burrows and goats and pigs. Even camels came through Idaho.”
 Ranching and sheep herding are both significant elements to the information in the booklet, however a wide variety of backgrounds and peoples are highlighted throughout. Growing up in West Virginia, Eller said he grew up knowing songs of actual people and places from the early days of the area. Content of these “story songs” would range from train wrecks, car wrecks, robberies and ghosts, and he has always had a special place in his heart for these songs. After moving to Idaho, Eller searched for songs on the same style from the early days of Idaho and could not find many that were well known.
 “A lot of the people who settled here were from the east and southeast, and I knew they didn’t stop writing songs just because they moved to Idaho,” said Eller. “The songs somehow got lost along the way.”

With his love for music guiding his passion, Eller began a project of traveling throughout the state, gathering information from rural libraries, museums, and local people, eventually creating a series of booklets filled with history through music. He also utilizes digitized newspapers from early Idaho featured online, allowing access to a treasure-trove of information. A retired chemist, he has developed essential research skills and loves the thrill of chasing then finding information. During his studies, Eller said he found that early musicologists gathered information from all the lower 48 states except for Idaho. As a self-proclaimed amateur musicologist, he took it upon himself to finish the work that early musicologists began to preserve the beautiful music created before radio.
 “I’ve been in literally just about every museum and library in Idaho,” said Eller. “The best libraries are…these libraries that have been there forever. The worst thing is going to a place that has a brand-new library because that means they’ve cleaned out their files, and the really good stuff I’m interested in are in those hanging folders that no one knew what to do with.”
 The two CD’s include 46 recordings of the gathered art by Idaho musicians and poets. Eller said he relishes the opportunity to play songs that connect with an area that people from the area may never have heard. The seventh song featured on the second CD is titled the “Weiser Cowboy Song,” written by a Missouri man that moved in 1893 and started a ranch in Indian Valley. This is an example of the kind of song that Eller searches for, that connects meaningfully and historically to an area.
 “If you put the story in a song…then people remember stuff,” said Eller.
 The official rollout of the project scheduled for March 20 will feature three old-time ranchers, two of which contributed poems to the project. The three gentlemen will open the program by sharing stories about their time as ranchers and interesting stock handlers they have come across. Afterward, Eller will play live songs from the booklet for people to experience firsthand. The program is scheduled to be held at the Bee Tree Folk School beginning at 7 p.m.
 “I’m one of those people that believe that if you don’t learn something from your history, you’re doomed to make stupid mistakes again,” said Eller. “The real permanence is getting the books published and in major libraries…because then the next person can easily find these songs.”
 

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18 E. Idaho St.
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